The barrier had fallen due to Eric and his dragon now dead, and the shadow mages seemed to have left the place deserted after their dragons had taken them to a foreign land outside their home. The few remaining dragon riders where now currently flying away on the backs of dragons to a nearby mountain range for safety.

Over the thundering wing beats of dragons, no one spoke, and Noah showed no sign of waking up anytime soon. No one shared a word, they were all tired and caught up in their thoughts to acknowledge one another, that was until Comet's keen eyes spotted movement on the surface.

Reborns were infesting the surface like ants, wild red eyes glinting in the light of day. The creatures were scampering to the now abandoned buildings that once held hundreds of shadow mages. Emma patted Comet's neck, turning the dragons focus off the reborns and back to the mountain range that was just a few minutes away; the dragon huffed as he returned to the sky, the white clouds right above him floating while watching them.

It took about half an hour of flying before the dragons landed on a somewhat flat area on the mountain, the rock on the sides slowly crumbling off and threatening to swallow anyone down if they made the wrong move. Comet spread his talons to allow himself to have as much stable ground as possible, letting the girl on his back slip off and settle on the new area.

When everyone was off the dragons, including Noah who was currently being carried by Peter, they surrounded each other with questions stirring their thoughts.

"So...what's our next move?" Jasmine asked with a sigh. All were silent as they thought, but no one knew what to do, they were all overwhelmed with the thoughts of the infesting reborns.

"Headmaster told me a shadow mage could enter the void and collect his personal history book, he said that it had the answer to find the weapon to defeat the reborns." Emma looked over to Richard, "do you think you can enter Comet's void and retrieve this book?"

Richard looked up to the silver dragon who was returning his gaze with a nasty glare. Richard's female dragon didn't take to well to the attitude, and sent a warning snarl to the old beast. Noah's uncle patted his dragons nose and stepped up to Comet, who had tilted his head in curiosity. "I guess I can, After all, your friends saved my boy, in on your debt."

And with those words, Richard let his hands glide along Comet's scales, and his other hand waved around to open an opening to the void. Without hesitating, he stepped right inside, the portal closing right after.

"I do not like random strangers going through my riders personal domain." Comet's thundering voice mixed with Emma's many thoughts, although she had her to admit she was nervous to find out what this weapon was, despite the urge to finally conquered the echoing voice in her head.

Oh does it ever shut up?

"Is it bothering you again, Emma?" Jasmine asked. The brunette looked up to the electric mage who was sitting beside her in the rubble, her yellow eyes shining with concern.

"Can you tell?" She asked.

"Yeah, you always get this distant look from time to time, like just now." Said Jasmine.

"And then you grimace." Peter added. Emma flushed in embarrassment, although her grey eyes travelled to David. The male was looking into another realm, his mind clearly not paying attention to the conversation. A groan from his feet got everyone's attention as Noah began to rub his eyes with the base of his hands.

"Emma, I had one hell of a dream, there was a rampage of dragons, and a very angry man that looked like-" His thought was cut off as his eyes landed on a trio of different types of mages, his black orbs widening as he tried to shuffle away, "stay back! I know how to use magic!"

Noah's threat was returned with a ball of water formed in David's hand, along with fire in Peter's and a bolt of lightning from Jasmine, all three elements easily scarring Noah equally the same.

"Congratulations, it's one against three, you still willing to run?" David said with a cold tone. The shadow mage gulped, his dark eyes looking around the area. Then he spotted Emma sitting close by with an amused expression, the sight of her causing him to run to her.

"Emma!" He shouted before running beside the girl. He immediately began examining her for wounds, but was relieved when he found none. Emma grabbed the males wrist and took them off her, her face stuck with a wide grin. Noah looked around one more time before staring into Emma's grey eyes, "what's going on here?"

"Relax, we managed to beat Eric and escape here. Your uncle, Richard, is in Comet's domain searching for his riders personal books." Emma tried her best to simplify the situation to him, and it seemed to work, but Noah was still on edge with the three other mages giving him death glares from behind.

"Who are they?" Noah asked while giving the mage with blue hair a deathly glare.

"Those are my friends from the academy, David the water mage, Peter our fire mage, and Jasmine the electric hot head." Emma joked.

"Hey!" Jasmine screeched.

"Can we trust the little guy, Emma?" Peter asked while putting his flames away. Jasmine did the same, however, David was still looking at Noah with conflicting feelings. The blue haired male reluctantly put down the water when Emma looked at him with pleading eyes, the sight of her pulling on his heart. Jasmine decided to join in on Emma's side, knowing that she was somewhat related to this male.

"Sorry guys, but I trust this guy." The electric mage said as she flicked her platinum hair away from her eyes. Emma smiled at her friend, knowing she was going to have to try a but harder to convince David and Peter.

"Look, this is Noah, the shadow mage who kidnapped me. He did it for a good cause though, their dragons were locked up underground since birth, like seriously!" The thought of captured dragons made every living thing on that mountain shiver with disgust.

"Doesn't mean we can trust him." Peter said.

"Maybe not, but I trust him." Emma said. Her three friends looked at each other for any hint of doubt, and surely enough they all seemed to worry about allowing this kid to join them, despite the fact that he had good morals to fuel his actions.

"Emma, I don't think you get it, Richard and him are both from that crazy caged-in hell! Who knows what kind of morals were planted into their heads, not to mention, who they used to work for." The blue haired male seemed completely against the idea of trusting the once previous enemy, but he had another thing coming.

"David, be reasonable, I don't think Richard would go against his king just because some boy told him to, he's dedicated to what's close to him, Noah does to, they're good people." Now trying to convince him, Emma seemed to be losing the last bit of her patience with the water mage. Sure, he had been kind and understanding back at the northern academy, but times like these change people.

"Emma, I don't think you realized that he kidnapped you! He risked your life just for a berserk dragon!" David's loud voice sent everyone into an uncomfortable silence, and Emma simply crossed her arms and looked away from him. She was angry with him, but she did not wish for her tongue to get the best of their friendship. Reluctantly, the brunette began to trudge down the mountain side, loose rocks sending out echoes as they fell to the bottom.

"Where are you going?" She heard David say.

"I need some time to think, so leave me alone." Peter took a step forward to stop her, but Jasmine grabbed onto his arm firmly.

"Let her go for now, we'll go after her in a few hours, she just needs some time." Jasmine let go of Peter's arm, knowing that the male would listen to get. Peter just stood there as he watched his friend walk away. David however turned around and walked over to Aqua, laying on her back as he closed his eyes, frustration clear in his bright blue eyes.

Noah, with the attention now off him, decided to part his own way as he too required some time alone. His home was now destroyed because of a girl who he thought would heal a sick dragon, and he had been hearing his own dragons voice ever since she had told him about the ability, he wanted answers, some only the girl could provide.

He had also realized that her name was Emma, a name she didn't wish to tell him herself. It made him slightly disappointed that she hadn't told him her name, but was glad he knew it anyways.

Emma had sat herself on a slab of rock that seemed to hang off the mountains edge, a small tree protruding up from the surface. The wind whipped her hair around her face this high up, keeping her cool as the sun beat down on her with it's harsh light. Her thoughts seemed to stir like an endless pool of noise, the chaos was swirling so loudly in her head that she barely noticed the sound of rocks clattering behind her.

"Emma." Noah came from behind her and sat next to the girl, his dark hair ruffling in the wind. The brunette jumped at her name, but as she saw that it was just him she relaxed.

"What's up? Come to clear your mind to?" She asked. He nodded, looking up to the sky filled with clouds.

"You know, I've never seen the clouds before, the barrier always cast the area in a red light; it's really nice to see this colour for a change..." Noah trailed off with a smile, and he couldn't help but stare at a floating cloud in the sky, the sight making him smile.

"I'm glad you came with us." Emma said.

"Not like I had much of a choice." Noah jokes. The girl chuckled with him, and she gasped as something came to mind.

"Wait! I can't believe this slipped my mind, Noah, your dragon!" At her words, the male immediately searched though his mind in search for the usual voice, but unlike before, he felt empty. Emma seemed to pick up on his sudden disappointment, so she grabbed his hand with a comforting expression. "Hey, they're probably just focusing on finding you right now, that's why you can't hear them."

He wanted to believe her, so he grasped her hand in return, his dark eyes gazing into her own. "I'm glad I came with you guys."

He hadn't had the chance to think about what he said, for a dark claw lurched onto the edge of the slab of rock the two were sitting on. Emma let go of Noah's hand and shuffled back, her eyes widened in fear as she heard the voice echoed in her head. The creature lifted itself over the edge and revealed its black, sickly body.

A reborn with dark horns on his head had appeared with a threatening smile, and a pair of small useless wings were extended on its body, and unlike the normal reborns four legs, this one had six.

"What the..." Noah started with horror.

"Oh I didn't miss you at all." Emma said as she stood. The voice chuckled, it's voice reverberating through the two humans.

The reborn snarled with its masters voice in its polluted head, the small red eyes on it's head glimmering with bloodlust.

The reborn turned its attention away from Emma and towards Noah, who was now trying to prepare a shadow ball in his hands. However when he made eye contact with the creature, his magic faded with the fear consuming him. The brunette didn't wait, she picked up the closest rock near her and ran to the reborn, slamming the jagged edge into it's scales. Surprisingly, the rock cut right into the scales with ease, a faint white glow coming from it. The reborn screeched, throwing its arm down and pinning the girl beneath it's massive claws.

"Emma! Shi-" The shadow mage didn't have much time as he shot a large shadow ball towards the distracted reborn, the magic hitting right along the reborns neck. The shadows crawled around the surface and began to dissolve the skin, taking it to another realm.

You see, shadow magic worked like poison, when the magic was concentrated into a ball and slathered over the surface of a physical thing, said item touched by the magic would be torn piece by piece into the void, proving to be one of the most brutal ways of torturing before the shadow mages were hidden away.

The creature went berserk, it's neck shooting out to take a mast bite out of Noah while keeping a firm hold on Emma, keeping her pinned from the ground. The male quickly jumped to the side as the reborn took in a large chunk of rocks, fury burning in its eyes. Noah felt a shiver run up his spine, and that's when the reborn reared its neck, striking like a cobra.

That is when a dragon's roar, one unfamiliar to Emma vibrated through the air, stopping the reborn in its attack.